Clutch: SMBs focus on wrong SEO metrics

B2B research and reviews firm, Clutch, has released new findings from their research into small businesses use of search engine optimization which shows that more than half of SMBs in the US invested in SEO in 2016 but most are focusing on the wrong metrics.

Fifty-two percent of SMBs in the US invested in SEO last year, and even more (74%) intend to do so this year, according to the latest report from Clutch. However, more than 50% limit their SEO activities to local and on-site optimization rather than expand SEO opportunities to content creation and guest posting.

The extent of SMB SEO efforts appears to be dictated by the resources used, says Clutch. Six in 10 of SMBs use in-house resources for SEO yet it is often a combination of internal and external resources, such as agencies, consultants or software, that is most effective.

"The in-house person eventually gets to a point where they hit their limits. They don't have the training," said John Lincoln, CEO of Ignite Visibility. "To do SEO correctly and really compete in this very competitive online space, it's good to have a true external expert that's working at an expert company along with somebody who's in-house."

Website traffic from search engines is the metric used by most small businesses to measure SEO effectiveness (56%) while 50% track the quantity and quality of backlinks to their site.

"The goal of SEO is to rank highly for search terms real people use to find answers to their questions," says Michael Mignogna, CEO of SEO and marketing firm Minyona. "So, it's neither traffic nor backlinks that an SEO expert should be focusing on. Instead, they should be reporting on which keywords people are actually typing into search, and where the business ranks for those searches."